IntelliBriefs bring you Intelligence briefs on Geopolitics , Security and Intelligence from around the world . We gather information and insights from multiple sources and present you in a digestible format to quench your thirst for right perspective, with right information at right time at right place . We encourage people to contact us with any relevant information that other news media organizations don't cover . Contact :intellibriefs@gmail.com

October 06, 2006

NEW DELHI - Though oil prices have settled down a bit, a serious attempt is being made to push alternative energies, to meet future contingencies. India produced 32 million tons of crude oil and imported nearly 99 million tons, which is nearly 80% of its requirement in 2005-06.

India has scaled up its estimate of power requirements to between 800,000 and 950,000 megawatts by 2030 to achieve the targeted economic growth of more than 8%. The choices China and India make in the next few years will lead the world on a path based on efficient technologies or growing ecological instability, the US-based World Watch Institute in its State of the World 2006 report has said.

Recently, the Indian minister for non-conventional energy sources, Vilas Muttemwar, said in parliament that US and German companies have made investment proposals worth Rs100 billion (US$2.1 billion) in a special economic zone (SEZ) for manufacturing renewable energy devices and systems. "Very soon we will identify the location for setting up the SEZ. We are studying locations in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh,' the minister said.

Extending support to alternative energy sources, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said India can save Rs95 billion each year from bio-diesel produced from jatropha, an oilseed plant. The National Oilseeds and Vegetable Oils Development (NOVOD) board, the designated agency of the farm ministry to promote biofuel crops, has projected 3.1-million-hectare coverage under jatropha plantation by 2008-09, he said.

NOVOD has estimated that the said acreage would produce about 3 million tons of bio-diesel (at the rate of 0.94 ton per hectare) annually. "This would result in a likely saving of foreign-exchange equivalent to about Rs95 billion,' the minister said.

So as not to hurt the country's agriculture produce, the government has identified 43 million hectares of available cultivable wastelands, of which 32 million hectares would be suitable for jatropha plantation.

Echoing similar sentiments, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said that India will soon launch a special mission to promote cultivation of non-edible oilseeds as well as other biofuel crops. "This mission would comprise 14 central ministries involved in the promotion of biofuels and state governments,' Pawar said.

Emphasizing the need for making biofuel cultivation economically viable for farmers as an alternative crop, Pawar said the Agriculture Ministry has been playing an active role in including constituting the NOVOD board to undertake research and popularization of non-edible oilseeds such as jatropha and karanja. [1]

Private-sector giant Reliance Industries Ltd has set aside $500 million to set up a bio-diesel-refining plant and earmarked 200 hectares of land at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh as a pilot project to cultivate jatropha shrubs. The plant is expected to be ready by 2008 near the existing 33-million-ton-per-annum crude-oil refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat.

In a first, two trains in India have recently started running on bio-diesel derived from jatropha. The two narrow-gauge trains in the state of Chhattisgarh travel 300 kilometers a day.

"The experiment is proving to be a great success, and the engines are working smoother and are jerk-free,' said a railway spokesperson.

And, as an example, chief minister of the central state of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh, who has set upon the task of growing jatropha with a missionary zeal, became the first head of a state government to use jatropha diesel for his official vehicle. The state government also plans to replace imported diesel with jatropha fuel for all state-owned vehicles by next year.

Another area of focus has been wind energy. The Global Wind Energy Outlook 2006 report, by the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace International, provides an industry blueprint that explains how wind power could supply 34% of the world's electricity by 2050.

Suzlon Energy, a home-grown Indian company, dominates the Indian market and is expanding rapidly abroad, having erected factories in locations as far away as Pipestone, Minnesota, and Tianjin, China. Four-fifths of the orders to Suzlon now come from outside India. Not on the list of the world's top 10 wind-turbine manufacturers as recently as 2002, Suzlon overtook Siemens of Germany last year to become the fifth-largest producer by installed megawatts of capacity.

This year, Pune-based Suzlon acquired for $600 million a Belgian company that makes gears for windmills.

Tulsi Tanti, the chairman of Suzlon Energy, has said that China is a promising market. The $60 million investment that Suzlon is making in its China factory is the first by an Indian company in the Chinese energy sector and one of the largest by any Indian firm in China.

Suzlon Energy has also decided to set up a 100MW farm project near Udupi, Karnataka. The company will spend Rs4 billion of the Rs14.96 billion raised through an initial public offering in September 2005.

Suzlon still trails the market leader, Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark, as well as General Electric, Enercon of Germany and Gamesa Tecnolgica of Spain. However, Suzlon's rapid growth showcases how a company can prosper by tackling the special needs of a developing country.

In the mid-1990s, the wind-energy business was seen as uncertain because of the predominance of fossil fuels. With oil prices, rising this is no longer the case.

India is well positioned to reap the benefits of the wind boom. The country's monsoon winds, particularly the southwest monsoon, which provides 80% of the wind-energy generation potential, contribute to a current annual power production of about 4,300MW from wind projects, standing fourth in the world behind Germany, Spain and the United States.

The Ministry of Non-conventional Energy foresees added capacity of 5,000MW from wind by 2012. India is seen not only as the largest market for wind energy in the Asia-Pacific region, but also as a manufacturing hub for wind turbines and related parts and equipment.

Recently, Vestas announced it was investing Rs5 billion to set up wind farms in Maharashtra. At the outset, it acquired more than 485 hectares of land in Dhule district, with infrastructure development for an installed wind-energy capacity of more than 100MW to commence soon. The company has also acquired land in Sourashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat, and an investment of more than Rs9 billion is envisaged during 2006-08.

Vestas also plans to establish a research base in Singapore to meet Asia's growing appetite for such energy supplies. The company will invest up to US$322 million over the next 10 years to set up the wind-technology research and development center.

However, much more needs to be done. The Indian government should grant a 10-year exemption of excise and customs duties as well as federal and state levies on bio-diesel or jatropha oil to encourage large-scale corporate plantation and reduce India's massive crude-oil import bill, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said recently.

Note1. Jatropha curcas is a species of plant indignenous to the Carribbean and brought to the subcontinent by Portuguese traders. Karanja belongs to the genus Pongamia.

The decision of Indian High court to issue the death warrant of Afazl Guru for October 20, 2006, in the 2001 terrorist attack on Indian Parliament, has sparked the protest in the valley where different groups took to the street against the death sentence of Afazal Guru. It is not only that Pakistan supported groups have called for the protest against the death sentence but mainstream political parties including Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had to request to PM for his clemency. Question is not whether Afzal Guru was innocent or not, and court always follow the circumstantial evidences that help it to reach any conclusive verdict. Judges probably had nothing personal with him and decision can not be called politically motivated to punish Afzal Guru or any one else. As another terrorist suspect Mr. A.R. Gilani was acquitted by the same Court. Indian Judiciary doesn’t have credibility problem because independent character, however, in some extra-ordinary cases governments do have means to influence the decisions in developed world too, but Guru Case is otherwise. But Indian government will certainly face the consequence of the ill-timing Judiciary have chosen to implement the death sentence against Mr. Afzal Guru.

I am not against the Judicial procedure but in certain cases such decisions may have long term negative political implication than serving the security interest of the country’. At this juncture death of Gurue may send different message than what Judiciary wishes to convey through its ruling. There is no doubt that if Judiciary began to entertain such concerns and political implications then dispensation of justice can be badly hampered, and people’s confidence over justice system is shattered. However, issue of capital punishment itself is controversial issue in international and human rights law where international body of human right’s Lawyers continues raising the question of capital punishment. They argue that capital punishment is not going to combat the serious crimes against humanity rather other socio-economic conditions need to improve to address the serious crimes. Along the similar lines many people argue in favor of terrorism that terrorism can only be fought if root causes of terrorism are not addressed, and root cause according to them is the historical fault lines, or injustices, largely argued by those who are accused of supporting the terrorism. But another parallel argument is also advanced by the vast majority of intellectuals and counter-terrorism experts those firmly believe that root causes are the socio-economic and political conditions largely prevail in Muslim countries because of authoritarian rule that has forced majority of the suppressed population to support the extremists who take the task to challenge the political order there. As continued misrule of the dictators and kings in Muslim countries have forced the population to see the ray of hope from the extremists and terrorists who at least show courage to challenge these dictators.

But in the conflict zones where extremist mainly eulogize Jihad against the infidels, and feel no harm in killing dozens of innocent civilians including children, women and old their own people every day, and blow themselves up to terrorize the people to follow their extremist path. Today, take the example of Guru’s sentence and outcry against his death sentence as some groups took to the street demanding clemency for him. Apparently, this is such an issue to which no body would oppose and those who would oppose and call Guru a terrorist, will be labeled by these groups as Indian agent; the political culture that is common in Pakistan and Pakistan controlled Kashmir Areas, while political phrase is reserved for the political opponents of military policies on Kashmir. They do not take time to label to call not only their detractors but also pro-peace political constituency by calling them anti-movement, the movement which is yet not clears whose was that? Whether Pakistan military or Kashmiri’s? if it was Kashmiri,s, so Mushraf now and than wouldn’t have made on and off different proposal whenever he felt political pressure from India or abroad; to leaves UN resolutions aside, justifies Indian concerns over change of borders, making borders irrelevant, asking for self rule. while self style pro-movement leaders instead of questioning Mushraf mandate to make such proposal find themselves in race to endorse his proposal and laud his vision lest military mentors shouldn’t find them behind in endorsing his statement. And Mushraf feels not obliged to consult any Kashmiri over any of his new proposal, and he throws proposals when he feels like while treats Kashmiri on both sides as soldier of his unit. He hardly bothers about the dummy Pakistani parliament largely filled by his turncoats and close ally MMA to talk about any policy matters or Kashmir, forget about his supported and controlled Kashmiri leaders who always lined up to beseech Military’s blessings because it is the custodian of democracy, human rights and Kashmircracy. In Indian administered Kashmir denouncing India has not only became common political practice but also permanent culture not to miss any opportunity whether it be Danish cartoons, Pope’s speech, killing by the militants, electricity black-out, people get killed in an road or boat accident, or Guru’s death sentence, they just need an excuse to condemn India and please Islamabad. Find me any single statement made by these so-called pro- movement leaders if they have ever criticized single political or civilian murder by the militants. Would they say that militants are not involved in killings of Kashmiri’s, destruction of social infrastructure and habitat of Kashmir, and whose loss is this India , Pakistan or Kashmiri’s? Who is responsible and how their conscience never bothered them on these ongoing killings and violence cause colossal man and material damage to the Kashmir . I am not pleading India but I am equally not supporter of violence that aimed at to political propaganda and mayhem?

As Guru’s decision was announced, Srinagar town, people and habitat saw the same old fashioned style politicking of condemning India but prior to the decision hardly any of these leaders could offer him any kind of moral, legal or political support. It is unfortunate that human life in Kashmir has become so cheap for political traders and government to help each other to keep both businesses running and booming. If Kashmiri won’t die Pakistan won’t find political Masala to make their news’s thrilling and scary. So there are holy alliance of holy leaders to make this unholy land under India to make it holy by putting under the holy army of Pakistan to baptize as leaders have already baptized In Islamabad; the army that has not spared its people, killings its leaders, raping democratic institutions, and depriving people from fundamental and democratic rights. So let’s not make Guru’s life a sacred cow to draw the political benefit for Mushraf regime, and political oxygen for themselves but take it serious as human and legal issue that need to be fought legally as his wife probably has taken initiatives because she can feel the emotional, economical and family loss.

Lives are precious including those who became victim of parliament attacks, their love ones must be asking why they were brutally killed while they had not killed any Kashmiri, the victims of Mumbai train also question who were theirs killers and why they killed?. So we must view the issues differently then making it political issues all time, every time blame game shouldn’t be allowed to play with human lives. No body is in favor of Guru’s death including Indians as words of one US terrorist victim in Iraq father still echoing in my minds when said on the killing of Zarawi-a top terrorist in Iraq who had beheaded his son- that he was saddened as another human life was lost. Humanism is greater than every religion, race, color, faith and politics, and those who politicize issue for cheap political benefits can not benefit the humanity, they may divide the humanity as we see in Kashmir today that people are divided under the faiths and race.

Now it is the Indian government whether they help these people out as they always do or take situation in their control by showing the magnanimity being largest democracy, and humanism by offering clemency to Guru. Critic blame Indian policy makers that they always help Islamabad and Mushraf to bail him out when he really faces the domestic and external pressure because of keep deceiving everyone from terrorism to the democracy and human rights at home. Pakistan and Mushraf, once again is at its low ebb, no matters how many shallow books he writes, how many visits he makes or dresses he change abroad to soften his image, but world media and people are continue skeptical to his words and action. As he never translated his words into action but wants to keep West and India in good humor by posing himself moderate. He never misses the opportunity to put India down on human rights in Kashmir despite the despicable human rights situation, and economic and political conditions at home, despite the killing of towering personality of Nawab Bugti- who served in different top positions in Pakistan .

It is the failure of Indian policy makers who fail to grasp the peculiarity of the sensitivity sometimes linked with very ordinary situation but its political implications could have different dimensions and magnitude. The lack of clarity in approach and agenda among the Indian policy makers today have pushed the mainstream politicians in Srinagar to speak the same language what Pakistan supported groups do. Pakistan certainly feel pleased on Indian policy makers useless efforts to please Pakistan supported groups and sideline the mainstream political leadership. Look how Mufti saeed and Mabooba Mufti are forced to please Mushraf by pleading his agenda of self rule, a rule to which Mushraf himself is not yet clear. While NC leaders, Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, who probably have been very against the militancy and rescued New Delhi during very tough situation but now they find themselves to join the chorus of Pakistan supported groups.

Indian policy makers must try to weigh the political cost and benefits on the death of Guru. The cost of his death certainly outweigh the political benefits, and they should desist from carrying it out, and pardon him will not only display Indian magnanimity but shut the mouth of many political benefit seekers.

October 02, 2006

We received the following extraordinary message from an anonymous source, which, even if partly true reflects very negatively on the UPA government and its policy of surrender going beyond appeasement.

An Ex-Indian intelligence official worked for RAW ,told IntelliBriefs that "I am prepared to attach some credence to it(below message) because I have heard from other sources that Sitaram Yechury and his wife are in the payroll of some foreign countries hostile to India."

In his analysis about the report below he told Intellibriefs that " what is driving the UPA Jihadi-appeasement policy is not vote bank politics but Sonia Gandhi's fear of becoming the target of Jihadi terror. This fear is evident also in her illingness to allow her hand-picked Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad meet President Kalam asking for clemency for Afzal Guru. Note that Sonia herself sent a letter to President Kalam, asking for the reimposition of the ban on RSS in MP. The same week, J&K CM Azad appeals for clemency to Afzal guru."

Dear Sir/Madam

I am a Joint Secretary Rank Officer of Government of India. As a responsible citizen I feel it my utmost duty to reveal an unimaginably ghastly attempt of UPA government to mislead the people of India over the matter of terrorism. I am referring to Malegaon Bomb Blast Case. We know it so very well as to how shamefully the UPA regime has been pursuing the minority appeasement policy. It has almost surrendered to jehadis. Such a brazen and shameless minoritism was raising several eyebrows even among some of the traditional UPA supporters. A Hindu backlash has been a foregone conclusion. After the Blasts at Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai; the UPA government was under tremendous pressure to take some stern and tough measures against terrorists and their supporters (among Muslim community, of course). But no section of UPA is willing to take such measures, for their "Vote Bank" consideration. Due to this brazen inaction of UPA government (i.e. the soft-approach towards terrorists and their supporters), the average Hindu, particularly the educated ones, have become very angry with them.The situation has reached to such an extent that even the most die-hard supporters of UPA government—the "secularists" of the English-electronic media (ToI, H.T., NDTV, CNN-IBN etc.)—are finding it increasingly difficult to hush-up (if you are not a downright idiot, you must have noticed/sensed this suicidal tendency of our own media, i.e. hushing-up or even justifying the incidents of mass killing ofHindus by Muslims on one pretext or other) the incidents of such mass killings of Hindus. Under tremendous pressure to do something about such incidents, the UPA government has orchestrated this Bomb .Blast with the following "secular" objectives in their mind:-

* Primarily, they want to make it appear as if this blast has been carried out by Muslim jehadi organisations (you see, how instantly the Home Minister Mr. Shivraj Patil accepted and termed it as terrorist strike; in total contrast to how dilly-dallying approach he usually takes when Hindus are attacked). One may wonder as to what the UPA Government stands to achieve from this? In UPA's scheme of things, the foremost priority has been to mollify the Hindus' anger towards Muslims—whenever such attacks take place on Hindus. Now hold your breath, they are not doing this because of any noble motives of shielding the Muslims from Hindus' wrath (as no such danger exist)neither because they love Muslims. It is all because of the fact that they think that the Hindus' anger and distrust (towards Muslims) will lead to a massive Hindu Polarization towards BJP/RSS. They think that after this blast at Malegaon the future (inevitable) attacks on Hindus and their places of worship may get secularized! ! Believe me, after this incident of Malegaon, the lunatics in UPA think that from now onwards if there is any attack on Hindus and their sacred places the Hindus may be fooled and insinuated into thinking that the terrorists ( i.e. Muslim Jehadi organisations) not only attack the Hindus and their places ofworship but Muslims and their places of worship as well (that is why the blasts were engineered just outside a Mosque, that too during the Friday prayers, and a Muslim burial site). These utter lunatics think that when Hindus see Muslim Jehadis attacking the Muslims itself, the average Hindus may not get that angry when they and their places of worship are attacked by Muslim Jehadis! The crux of the matter is that "lunatic seculars" in UPA want to make average Hindus believe that terroristtreat Hindus and Muslims alike, and attack on Hindus is not any specifically Muslim Jehadi deed; rather something of a regular (although severe) criminal deed!! They think that if Hindus are fooled into such thinking their polarization towards BJP/RSS can be checked!!

* The second objective of this engineered attack is to malign and slander the terrorists among the Muslims; to make average Muslim believe that jehadi terrorists are not their friends either. They hope thatafter such incidents many Muslims will become the hostile to terrorist organisations and will become the informer about the terrorists' activities. Although, to keep muslim masses away from terrorist organisations is a noble cause; but even to think of such steps to achieve this goal in not only criminal but a ridiculous and foolhardy approach as well. In fact, it is utterly stupid even to think that suchbuffoonery tactics will wean away the Muslims from jehadi organisations. Muslims know it too well that under no circumstances whatsoever (unless there is Shia-Sunni kind of problem); no jehadi organisation will ever attempt to do such a thing—killing the fellow Muslims without any reason. Even if the Blasts were done by Muslims (although, it has been not) and even if Muslim clerics knew of this; they will never openly admit it. I predict that despite the lack of any evidence, they will blame either the Hindu organisations or the security forces for this.Now I would tell some other details that I know about it. What I certainly know about the blasts is that it has been orchestrated by the MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE of UPA regime. I know it for sure that the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi knew about it beforehand (remember the prophetic warning of P.M. in chief Ministers' conference—I think it was perhaps a slip of tongue) However, I amnot so sure about the Home Minister; he is probably not into it (though I am not sure). But the master minds behind this are Mr. Sitaram Yechury & a Secretary Rank Officer of Government of India. This man—the secretary (I don't want to name him for my own security concerns, however I must give some hints as to who he is)—is known to be very close to Communist Leaders and it was the communist leaders who foistedhim to his present post in such a ministry that is very crucial in communists' scheme of things. How this conspiracy was hatched? It was the Jama Masjid Blasts that gave birth to this conspiracy. Who was behind the Jama Masjid Blasts? Though, I am not certain about it but—being a top ranked government official—I know some innermost information about this. Some police officials had apprehended ImamBukhari behind this! Why Bukhari did this? He wanted to organise a protest rally in favour of that Phoolpur Mufti who was behind the Varanasi Blasts. He wanted a pretext for such rally. After the Blasts he even organised that rally in favour of Phoolpur Mufti. The Bukhari wanted to create the impression that same set of people were behind both the Blasts—the Varanasi as well as Jama Masjid Blasts. For whatreasons; I don't know. However, to ensure that no one is killed in the Blasts (if the people were killed the matter would have snowballed), a very low intensity bomb (probably a fire cracker with wires and crude detonators wrapped around it—as was apprehended by the police) was used. Some police officers wanted to carry the investigation on this line but they were soon browbeaten by the UPA government and the matter was hushed up. Even several media people too know of this. To suppressthe matter, as usual, the ISI and Lashker were blamed for it.

However the secularists in media—even though many of them knew that ISI and Lashker had no role into this—used this incident to convince the Muslims that jehadis (ISI, Lashker, Jaish etc.) are as much of their enemies as of Hindus'. Noble though, the aim is but approach is foolish. The fight against the terrorism cannot be fought with such weak-kneed people as secularists are. Instead of facing the problem in a frank way, they want to wish away the very menace of terrorism. Since I am not in amood to lecture the secularists, therefore I won't say much about this. But it was this approach taken by media on Jama Masjid Blasts that got Mr. Secretary to think of such move. Initially, as I came to know of it,he proposed such idea before communist leaders in a lighter and non-serious way. But Mr. Yechury got immensely impressed by this idea and suggested such a move to Congress Top Brass through a NON-POLITICAL Christian Leader from Kerla. Since I am not 100% sure as to whether thisleader was really involved into conspiracy I won't reveal his name; however, as soon as I become sure of his involvement, I will reveal his name. After weighing the pros and cons of the matter, the congress leadership ultimately agreed to it. However some differences emerged within the UPA; whereas the congress wanted to frame Jehadi outfits for this, the communists wanted to implicate some Hindu organisations forthis. What ultimately was decided, I don't know. However I was stunned to see that whereas newspapers and T.V. channels, close to Congress, were blaming the Jehadis; a Newspaper considered very close to leftist lost no time in blaming Hindu organisations for this!! (Sic: The Hindu)

It seems that matter remained unresolved (regarding who should be framed for Bombings) till last and has been left open for any type of interpretation byinterested parties. UPA has been expecting imminent attack on Hindus during festival season of Dashehra, Durga-Pooja and Deepawali and due to this they had been under considerable pressure. But after perpetrating this Blast they are quite relieved! After the Blasts the conspirators were in a joyous mood and Mr. Secretary termed it as a MASTERSTROKE; as in his opinion, this has achieved two goals simultaneously (1) Blunting RSS/BJP criticism of UPA over attack of Jehadis on Hindus and (2) Getting some informers from among the Muslim community. You must note it in advance—future attacks of Hindus are going to be hushed up under these arguments by media and UPAregime:--

* The Standard Congress line will be--"you see, they attack Muslims too".

* The Standard Leftists Line will be—"you see, Hindus are also attacking Muslims".

The ultimate aim of this is to leave Hindus confused and to check their possible polarization towards RSS/BJP. Such is the thinking of the people who are in-charge of running this nation! Who carried out the bombings? As far as I know, no official machinery has been used to carry out the bombing. I have been informed that sectionsof Nepali Maoist Cadre and/or CPM Cadre were actively involved into this. How dramatized and well orchestrated the whole incident is, can be gauged by following events:-

* How a news channel's camera team immediately rushed to the spot?

* How that particular leftist newspaper (referred above) knew it in advance that no one will be caught for this?

* To give the incident a dramatic turn an unmanned jeep with huge explosive materials was planted and rumours were created that Blasts were aimed at diverting the police attention for safely smuggling the explosive materials. Only a die hard fool will believe this. Even the common man knows that after such incidents the police become far more active; those who want to smuggle the arms etc. would prefer normal incident free days for this rather than high alert days. But you see howfoolish the media is—how seriously they took this propaganda for truth.

* The composition of investigating team is nothing but a bunch of idiots; I have been told so by my friends in police. However many foolish people may get impressed with such an idea but in all, it is nothing but a criminal act. I am absolutely sure that this bombing is aimed more at confusing the Hindus than on weaning the Muslims away from terrorist organisations. Even if it is aimed at later, buffoonery apart, it is an unthinkably criminal way to achieve this aim. What is needed is tough and stern measures against jehadi Muslim Leaders (Bukhari, Madani, etc.) and Organisations (Madarsas and other seminaries, particularly the Devbandi and Ahle-Hadisi ones) rather than killing the innocent Muslim Civilians . I guarantee that such moves to fight terrorism and create Muslim informers will certainly fail. However it may end-up confusing the Hindus and may serve as a justification forfuture killing of Hindus. Due to my personal security reasons I can come into open only when this wretched bunch of criminals—the UPA Government—goes out of power. However I plead every right thinking citizen of India—Hindu and Muslim alike—to send this mail to as may people as possible. I want this fact to come into open.

We received the following extraordinary message from an anonymous source, which, even if partly true reflects very negatively on the UPA government and its policy of surrender going beyond appeasement.

An Ex-Indian intelligence official worked for RAW ,told IntelliBriefs that "I am prepared to attach some credence to it(below message) because I have heard from other sources that Sitaram Yechury and his wife are in the payroll of some foreign countries hostile to India."

In his analysis about the report below he told Intellibriefs that " what is driving the UPA Jihadi-appeasement policy is not vote bank politics but Sonia Gandhi's fear of becoming the target of Jihadi terror. This fear is evident also in her illingness to allow her hand-picked Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad meet President Kalam asking for clemency for Afzal Guru. Note that Sonia herself sent a letter to President Kalam, asking for the reimposition of the ban on RSS in MP. The same week, J&K CM Azad appeals for clemency to Afzal guru."

Dear Sir/Madam

I am a Joint Secretary Rank Officer of Government of India. As a responsible citizen I feel it my utmost duty to reveal an unimaginably ghastly attempt of UPA government to mislead the people of India over the matter of terrorism. I am referring to Malegaon Bomb Blast Case. We know it so very well as to how shamefully the UPA regime has been pursuing the minority appeasement policy. It has almost surrendered to jehadis. Such a brazen and shameless minoritism was raising several eyebrows even among some of the traditional UPA supporters. A Hindu backlash has been a foregone conclusion. After the Blasts at Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai; the UPA government was under tremendous pressure to take some stern and tough measures against terrorists and their supporters (among Muslim community, of course). But no section of UPA is willing to take such measures, for their "Vote Bank" consideration. Due to this brazen inaction of UPA government (i.e. the soft-approach towards terrorists and their supporters), the average Hindu, particularly the educated ones, have become very angry with them.The situation has reached to such an extent that even the most die-hard supporters of UPA government—the "secularists" of the English-electronic media (ToI, H.T., NDTV, CNN-IBN etc.)—are finding it increasingly difficult to hush-up (if you are not a downright idiot, you must have noticed/sensed this suicidal tendency of our own media, i.e. hushing-up or even justifying the incidents of mass killing ofHindus by Muslims on one pretext or other) the incidents of such mass killings of Hindus. Under tremendous pressure to do something about such incidents, the UPA government has orchestrated this Bomb .Blast with the following "secular" objectives in their mind:-

* Primarily, they want to make it appear as if this blast has been carried out by Muslim jehadi organisations (you see, how instantly the Home Minister Mr. Shivraj Patil accepted and termed it as terrorist strike; in total contrast to how dilly-dallying approach he usually takes when Hindus are attacked). One may wonder as to what the UPA Government stands to achieve from this? In UPA's scheme of things, the foremost priority has been to mollify the Hindus' anger towards Muslims—whenever such attacks take place on Hindus. Now hold your breath, they are not doing this because of any noble motives of shielding the Muslims from Hindus' wrath (as no such danger exist)neither because they love Muslims. It is all because of the fact that they think that the Hindus' anger and distrust (towards Muslims) will lead to a massive Hindu Polarization towards BJP/RSS. They think that after this blast at Malegaon the future (inevitable) attacks on Hindus and their places of worship may get secularized! ! Believe me, after this incident of Malegaon, the lunatics in UPA think that from now onwards if there is any attack on Hindus and their sacred places the Hindus may be fooled and insinuated into thinking that the terrorists ( i.e. Muslim Jehadi organisations) not only attack the Hindus and their places ofworship but Muslims and their places of worship as well (that is why the blasts were engineered just outside a Mosque, that too during the Friday prayers, and a Muslim burial site). These utter lunatics think that when Hindus see Muslim Jehadis attacking the Muslims itself, the average Hindus may not get that angry when they and their places of worship are attacked by Muslim Jehadis! The crux of the matter is that "lunatic seculars" in UPA want to make average Hindus believe that terroristtreat Hindus and Muslims alike, and attack on Hindus is not any specifically Muslim Jehadi deed; rather something of a regular (although severe) criminal deed!! They think that if Hindus are fooled into such thinking their polarization towards BJP/RSS can be checked!!

* The second objective of this engineered attack is to malign and slander the terrorists among the Muslims; to make average Muslim believe that jehadi terrorists are not their friends either. They hope thatafter such incidents many Muslims will become the hostile to terrorist organisations and will become the informer about the terrorists' activities. Although, to keep muslim masses away from terrorist organisations is a noble cause; but even to think of such steps to achieve this goal in not only criminal but a ridiculous and foolhardy approach as well. In fact, it is utterly stupid even to think that suchbuffoonery tactics will wean away the Muslims from jehadi organisations. Muslims know it too well that under no circumstances whatsoever (unless there is Shia-Sunni kind of problem); no jehadi organisation will ever attempt to do such a thing—killing the fellow Muslims without any reason. Even if the Blasts were done by Muslims (although, it has been not) and even if Muslim clerics knew of this; they will never openly admit it. I predict that despite the lack of any evidence, they will blame either the Hindu organisations or the security forces for this.Now I would tell some other details that I know about it. What I certainly know about the blasts is that it has been orchestrated by the MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE of UPA regime. I know it for sure that the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi knew about it beforehand (remember the prophetic warning of P.M. in chief Ministers' conference—I think it was perhaps a slip of tongue) However, I amnot so sure about the Home Minister; he is probably not into it (though I am not sure). But the master minds behind this are Mr. Sitaram Yechury & a Secretary Rank Officer of Government of India. This man—the secretary (I don't want to name him for my own security concerns, however I must give some hints as to who he is)—is known to be very close to Communist Leaders and it was the communist leaders who foistedhim to his present post in such a ministry that is very crucial in communists' scheme of things. How this conspiracy was hatched? It was the Jama Masjid Blasts that gave birth to this conspiracy. Who was behind the Jama Masjid Blasts? Though, I am not certain about it but—being a top ranked government official—I know some innermost information about this. Some police officials had apprehended ImamBukhari behind this! Why Bukhari did this? He wanted to organise a protest rally in favour of that Phoolpur Mufti who was behind the Varanasi Blasts. He wanted a pretext for such rally. After the Blasts he even organised that rally in favour of Phoolpur Mufti. The Bukhari wanted to create the impression that same set of people were behind both the Blasts—the Varanasi as well as Jama Masjid Blasts. For whatreasons; I don't know. However, to ensure that no one is killed in the Blasts (if the people were killed the matter would have snowballed), a very low intensity bomb (probably a fire cracker with wires and crude detonators wrapped around it—as was apprehended by the police) was used. Some police officers wanted to carry the investigation on this line but they were soon browbeaten by the UPA government and the matter was hushed up. Even several media people too know of this. To suppressthe matter, as usual, the ISI and Lashker were blamed for it.

However the secularists in media—even though many of them knew that ISI and Lashker had no role into this—used this incident to convince the Muslims that jehadis (ISI, Lashker, Jaish etc.) are as much of their enemies as of Hindus'. Noble though, the aim is but approach is foolish. The fight against the terrorism cannot be fought with such weak-kneed people as secularists are. Instead of facing the problem in a frank way, they want to wish away the very menace of terrorism. Since I am not in amood to lecture the secularists, therefore I won't say much about this. But it was this approach taken by media on Jama Masjid Blasts that got Mr. Secretary to think of such move. Initially, as I came to know of it,he proposed such idea before communist leaders in a lighter and non-serious way. But Mr. Yechury got immensely impressed by this idea and suggested such a move to Congress Top Brass through a NON-POLITICAL Christian Leader from Kerla. Since I am not 100% sure as to whether thisleader was really involved into conspiracy I won't reveal his name; however, as soon as I become sure of his involvement, I will reveal his name. After weighing the pros and cons of the matter, the congress leadership ultimately agreed to it. However some differences emerged within the UPA; whereas the congress wanted to frame Jehadi outfits for this, the communists wanted to implicate some Hindu organisations forthis. What ultimately was decided, I don't know. However I was stunned to see that whereas newspapers and T.V. channels, close to Congress, were blaming the Jehadis; a Newspaper considered very close to leftist lost no time in blaming Hindu organisations for this!! (Sic: The Hindu)

It seems that matter remained unresolved (regarding who should be framed for Bombings) till last and has been left open for any type of interpretation byinterested parties. UPA has been expecting imminent attack on Hindus during festival season of Dashehra, Durga-Pooja and Deepawali and due to this they had been under considerable pressure. But after perpetrating this Blast they are quite relieved! After the Blasts the conspirators were in a joyous mood and Mr. Secretary termed it as a MASTERSTROKE; as in his opinion, this has achieved two goals simultaneously (1) Blunting RSS/BJP criticism of UPA over attack of Jehadis on Hindus and (2) Getting some informers from among the Muslim community. You must note it in advance—future attacks of Hindus are going to be hushed up under these arguments by media and UPAregime:--

* The Standard Congress line will be--"you see, they attack Muslims too".

* The Standard Leftists Line will be—"you see, Hindus are also attacking Muslims".

The ultimate aim of this is to leave Hindus confused and to check their possible polarization towards RSS/BJP. Such is the thinking of the people who are in-charge of running this nation! Who carried out the bombings? As far as I know, no official machinery has been used to carry out the bombing. I have been informed that sectionsof Nepali Maoist Cadre and/or CPM Cadre were actively involved into this. How dramatized and well orchestrated the whole incident is, can be gauged by following events:-

* How a news channel's camera team immediately rushed to the spot?

* How that particular leftist newspaper (referred above) knew it in advance that no one will be caught for this?

* To give the incident a dramatic turn an unmanned jeep with huge explosive materials was planted and rumours were created that Blasts were aimed at diverting the police attention for safely smuggling the explosive materials. Only a die hard fool will believe this. Even the common man knows that after such incidents the police become far more active; those who want to smuggle the arms etc. would prefer normal incident free days for this rather than high alert days. But you see howfoolish the media is—how seriously they took this propaganda for truth.

* The composition of investigating team is nothing but a bunch of idiots; I have been told so by my friends in police. However many foolish people may get impressed with such an idea but in all, it is nothing but a criminal act. I am absolutely sure that this bombing is aimed more at confusing the Hindus than on weaning the Muslims away from terrorist organisations. Even if it is aimed at later, buffoonery apart, it is an unthinkably criminal way to achieve this aim. What is needed is tough and stern measures against jehadi Muslim Leaders (Bukhari, Madani, etc.) and Organisations (Madarsas and other seminaries, particularly the Devbandi and Ahle-Hadisi ones) rather than killing the innocent Muslim Civilians . I guarantee that such moves to fight terrorism and create Muslim informers will certainly fail. However it may end-up confusing the Hindus and may serve as a justification forfuture killing of Hindus. Due to my personal security reasons I can come into open only when this wretched bunch of criminals—the UPA Government—goes out of power. However I plead every right thinking citizen of India—Hindu and Muslim alike—to send this mail to as may people as possible. I want this fact to come into open.

October 01, 2006

Water resources are available for the thirsty giant needed: National Water Grid Corporation

Water resources are available for the thirsty giant; needed: National Water Grid Corporation with Panchayati Raj institutions as stake-holders and implementing agencies

The following three-part series by Somini Sengupta in New York Times highlight a key developmental imperative: Water Management.

Unfortunately, in a typical journalistic overkill, Somini does NOT provide positive steps needed for effective Water Management. In the Supreme Court, a PIL is ongoing. Regarding the implementation of a National Perspective Plan drawn up by National Water Development Agency after over 20 years of investigation, an Affidavit was given by Govt. of India which was noted by the Supreme Court: "Now as per Action Plan-I the schedule for impelementation is 10 years from the start. It stipulates that the work on the links can be started from 2007. It is envisaged to be completed by say end of 2016. Now as per Action Plan-I the schedule for impelementation is 10 years from the start. It stipulates that the work on the links can be started from 2007. It is envisaged to be completed by say end of 2016." http://nwda.gov.in/indexmain.asp?linkid=97&langid=1

Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri – 27.64 MHM; served area: 6,67,073 sq.km. [24134 sq.km. per MHM]West-flowing(Sahyadri) rivers – 11.35 MHM; served area: 56,177 sq.km. [1359 sq.km. per MHM]Just three months' flood-waters of Brahmaputra are equal to the entire water resource of Peninsular rivers. Moving such flood waters and equitable sharing of Sahyadri monsoon waters alone can double the water availability in Peninsular rivers. We can take a cue from the successful accomplishments of interlinking of two himalayan rivers by China: Yangtse and Huanghe to reach waters into the Gobi desert.

These statistics clearly demonstrate the imbalance in the land area available along the plains to the west of Sahyadri ranges in Peninsular India and along the Brahmaputra river basin to fully utilize the water resources of these two regions. In a democratic set-up it is virtually impossible to relocate people and settlements into areas where water is available. In the case of Brahmaputra basin and Sahyadri western-flank plains, land available is just inadequate to contemplate any large-scale resettlements.

India is endowed with a long coastline with many densely populated urban areas along the coastline. It may be possible to provide desalinated seawater for drinking purposes to these coastal cities and towns, utiling nuclear-powered desalination plants on floating barges at a cost of 4.5 paise per litre.

Afforestation requires water to make every tree a veritable reservoir. It is possible to increase the present forestcover of 11% to 25% along the slopes of mountain ranges and all over the plains, provided water resources in drought-prone areas are augmented by converting all Peninsular rivers as perennial rivers. Such a possibility will lead to the present practice of single-rainfed crop pattern being radically changed to upto four crops per year with assured water supply round the year.

This calls for the creation of a National Water Grid on the lines of the Grid operational in Geat Britain which went through a Canals Age before the Industrial Age. Such a Grid will ensure the regular refillling of lakes and tanks, recharging of ground-water tables, afforestation and creation of additional irrigation facilities to bring am addotopma; 9 crore acres of land (that is, 32.5 million hectares) under cultivation. If this additional irrigated land of 9 crore acreas is equitably distributed to 9 crore poor families, a veritable revolution in the income patterns of rural India can be achieved, leading to the realization of Developed India Vision 2020. The estimaged cost of Rs. 5.36 lakh crores spent over 7 years (project period) amounts to Rs. 76,000 crores per year which is only 1.5% of the GDP and can be met by peoples' contributions through bonds as was done for implementing the Konkan Railway project. On the lines of the Konkan Railway Corporation, two autonomous entities of Peninsular Water Grid Corporation and Himalayan Water Grid Corporation as two wings of the National Water Grid Corporation -- can be set up to implement the project with private funds, without involving Government budgets but involving every panchayati raj institution as stake-holders and implementing agencies. An additional bonus will be the creation of a 25,000 km. Long water way which, together with the long coastline, can constitute an infrastructure paralleling the Railway system to move bulk commodities of coal, iron ore and steel products to all parts of the country. One more bonus will be the production of over 30000 mw of hydro-electric power fed into the national power grid.

The Grid is comparable to the Power Grid. At the turn of a switch, water should become available in every household, every farm and every household, irrespective of the source of water – whether from glaciers, from rivers, swamps, tanks, groundwater or desalinated sea-water. Such a Grid together with effective measures to ensure environmental sustainability, resettlement of people affected by the project, integration of measures for pollution control/avoidance, water conservation and local water-harvesting measures will convert the present water management crisis into a water resource management opportunity.

The Grid will thus be a solution to the twin problems of floods and droughts which recurrently account for an average of Rs.30,000 and Rs. 15,000 crores respectively of annual expenses. A significant reduction in these annual expenses will be achieved.

In addition to the Peninsular and Himalayan components outlined by NWDA, it is possible to institute a Contour Canal parallel to the Konkan Railway as a measure of water harvesting on the Sahyadri ranges to provide water resources to the deccan plateau uplands and rain-shadow regions while rejuvenating the forests on the western and eastern slopes of the ranges. Such a project report has been presented by Engineer Pandurang Todkar of Maharashtra.

Yes, a Thirsty Giant, has to think big and think national and resolve the recurrent water crises in a land endowed with the greatest, growing water tower of the world, the Himalayas. The Glaciers of the Himalayas account for about 65 to 70% of the total fresh-water resource of the nation. This resource is growing as the Himalayan ranges rise about 1 cm. every year. The accumulation of waters in the forms of glaciers is larger than the discharge of water by glacier melts.

Global warming will also result in additional monsoon rains making up for any increased melts. Some people create a scare stating that we should not mess with rivers. If there is no river management, progress is impossible. Rightly did some leaders note that dams like the Bhakra-Nangal dams are the modern temples. Irrigation is a technology which the farmers should be increasingly exposed to, reducing their reliance on the vagaries of the monsoon. Even from the days of gabarbands on Sindhu river and the grand anicut on Kaveri River instituted respectively about 4000 and 2000 years ago, slowing down the run-offs is a standard technological tool to make available water through irrigation systems to the farms. This is exemplified by the remarkable system of 50,000 tanks interlinked in Peninsular India and functioning effectively for thousands of years as a water harvesting method cutting across village or state boundaries. This technique has to be expanded to make available water on demand, make water available freely, without any fees or charges. Adam Smith called water and air as free goods. It will be apposite to keep them as free goods and not allow any privatization of water resources taking the nation's wealth of free goods away from the eminent domain or the Commons. Such an approach will be consistent with the rich traditions of the country which treats waters as sacred resulting in many tirthasthaanas for heritage tours and sacred gatherings such as the Kumbha mela -- the last mela attracted about 10 crore people who took a dip in the sacred waters of Triveni Sangamam. As the River Sarasvati is coming alive, lakhs of acres of land have been brought under cultivation and efforts are afoot to afforest the Marusthali, the Great Indian Desert, stopping the march of the desert and the sand-dunes by planting trees as wind-breakers. Recent flash floods in Barmer are a warning signal that we should resouble the efforts to rejuvenate the drainage systems and water storage systems to support the improved productivity of the rich alluvial land which almost all parts of the nation are endowed with. With attention to soil health, cropping patterns, choice of seeds, augmentation of water availability a blue revolution as a second green revolution can be accomplished.

A Thirsty Giant can grow into a Developed India 2020 with national will and purpose. The Grid project by itself has the potential to make this happen, while providing employment opportunities to crores of people and providing an economic multiplier effect to boost up the annual rate of growth of the economy.

It is refreshing to note that UPA's Common Minimum Programme includes a commitment to implement the Peninsular Water Grid and the Chief Ministers of Karnataka and Tamilnadu have vowed to take the lead in making this Grid a reality. With an interlinkig of minds for a national cause, national resolve and following the repeated advice and guidance of HE President Abdul Kalam, the National Water Grid Corporation should be an answer to the thirst of the giant.The child who serves water freely, without any charge, in a piao, to the thirsty pilgrims of Rajasthan after fetching water from a Bhojaraja's well (constructed about 1000 years ago !) should be provided with tap-water in her home in the village so that she can go to school instead of spending her entire life fetching water from the wav of Bhojararajw about 10 kms. away from the village. Reaching water to the unreached is a national imperative, together with equity in water availability across the length and breadth of the nation, releasing the people from the adverse effectsof vagaries of varuna bhagawan. We live in an absurd economy where a litre of milk costs only Rs. 11.50 while a litre of bottled water costs Rs. 12. There is no incentive for the milkman to add water to milk. We have to undo this topsy-turvy economic situation on a resource which is the lifeline of a civilization. Yes, jal hee jeevan. Think rural, think of the farm. Think abhyudayam which, together with nihs'reyas, is the very quintessence of dharma defined by its twin impact of abhyudayam (welfare)and nihs'reyas (moksha).

KalyanaramanSeptember 29, 2006[The report is reproduced in full since NYTimes articles are accessible by subscription only.]

Ask Ritu Prasher. Every day, Mrs. Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of this capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water.

It is a rare morning when water trickles through the pipes. More often, not a drop will come. So Mrs. Prasher will have to call a private water tanker, wait for it to show up, call again, wait some more and worry about whether enough buckets are filled in the bathroom in case no water arrives.

"Your whole day goes just planning how you'll get water," a weary Mrs. Prasher, 45, recounted one morning this summer, cellphone in hand and ready to press redial for the water tanker. "You become so edgy all the time."

In the richest city in India, with the nation's economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people like Mrs. Prasher are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the government's astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.

The crisis, decades in the making, has grown as fast as India in recent years. A soaring population, the warp-speed sprawl of cities, and a vast and thirsty farm belt have all put new strains on a feeble, ill-kept public water and sanitation network.

The combination has left water all too scarce in some places, contaminated in others and in cursed surfeit for millions who are flooded each year. Today the problems threaten India's ability to fortify its sagging farms, sustain its economic growth and make its cities healthy and habitable. At stake is not only India's economic ambition but its very image as the world's largest democracy.

"If we become rich or poor as a nation, it's because of water," said Sunita Narain, director of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi.

Conflicts over water mirror the most vexing changes facing India: the competing demands of urban and rural areas, the stubborn divide between rich and poor, and the balance between the needs of a thriving economy and a fragile environment.

New Delhi's water woes are typical of those of many Indian cities. Nationwide, the urban water distribution network is in such disrepair that no city can provide water from the public tap for more than a few hours a day.

An even bigger problem than demand is disposal. New Delhi can neither quench its thirst, nor adequately get rid of the ever bigger heaps of sewage that it produces. Some 45 percent of the population is not connected to the public sewerage system.

Those issues are amplified nationwide. More than 700 million Indians, or roughly two-thirds of the population, do not have adequate sanitation. Largely for lack of clean water, 2.1 million children under the age of 5 die each year, according to the United Nations.

The government says that 9 out of 10 Indians have access to the public water supply, but that may include sources that are going dry or are contaminated.

The World Bank, in rare agreement with Ms. Narain, warned in a report published last October that India stood on the edge of "an era of severe water scarcity."

"Unless dramatic changes are made — and made soon — in the way in which government manages water," the World Bank report concluded, "India will have neither the cash to maintain and build new infrastructure, nor the water required for the economy and for people."

The window to address the crisis is closing. Climate change is expected only to exacerbate the problems by causing extreme bouts of weather — heat, deluge or drought.

A River of Waste

The fabled Yamuna River, on whose banks this city was born more than 2,000 years ago, is a case study in the water management crisis confronting India.

In Hindu mythology, the Yamuna is considered to be a river that fell from heaven to earth. Today, it is a foul portrait of crippled infrastructure — and yet, still worshiped. From the bridges that soar across the river, the faithful toss coins and sweets, lovingly wrapped in plastic. They scatter the ashes of their dead.

In New Delhi the Yamuna itself is clinically dead.

As the Yamuna enters the capital, still relatively clean from its 246-mile descent from atop the Himalayas, the city's public water agency, the New Delhi Jal Board, extracts 229 million gallons every day from the river, its largest single source of drinking water.

As the Yamuna leaves the city, it becomes the principal drain for New Delhi's waste. Residents pour 950 million gallons of sewage into the river each day.

Coursing through the capital, the river becomes a noxious black thread. Clumps of raw sewage float on top. Methane gas gurgles on the surface.

It is hardly safe for fish, let alone bathing or drinking. A government audit found last year that the level of fecal coliform, one measure of filth, in the Yamuna was 100,000 times the safe limit for bathing.

In 1992, a retired Indian Navy officer who once sailed regattas on the Yamuna took his government to the Supreme Court. The retired officer, Sureshwar D. Sinha, charged that the state had killed the Yamuna and violated his constitutional right, as a practicing Hindu, to perform ritual baths in the river.

Since then, the Supreme Court ordered the city's water authority to treat all sewage flowing into the river and improve water quality. In 14 years, that command is still unmet.

New Delhi's population, now 16 million, has expanded by roughly 41 percent in the last 15 years, officials estimate. As the number of people living — and defecating — in the city soars, on average more than half of the sewage they pour into the river goes untreated.

A government audit last year indicted the Jal Board for having spent $200 million and yielding "very little value." The construction of more sewage treatment plants has done little to stanch the flow, in part because sewage lines are badly clogged and because power failures leave them inoperable for hours at a time.

"It has not improved at all because the quantity of sewage is constantly increasing," said R. C. Trivedi, a director of the Central Pollution Control Board, which monitors the quality of the Yamuna River. "The gap is continually widening."

Making matters worse, many New Delhi neighborhoods, like Janata Colony — Hindi for People's Colony — are not even connected to sewage pipes. Open sewers hem the narrow lanes of the slum. Every alley carries their stench.

Some canals are so clogged with trash and sludge that they are no more than green-black ribbons of muck. It is a mosquitoes' paradise. Malaria and dengue fever are regular visitors.

Not long ago, a 2-year-old boy named Arman Mustakeem fell into one such canal and drowned. His parents said they found him floating in the open sewer in front of their home.

These canals empty into a wide storm drain. It, in turn, runs through the eastern edges of the city, raking in more sewage and cascades of trash, before it merges with effluent from two sewage treatment plants, and finally, enters the Yamuna.

Carrying the capital's waste on its back, the Yamuna meanders south to cities like Mathura and Agra, home to the Taj Mahal. It is their principal source of drinking water, too. New Delhi's downstream neighbors are forced to treat the water heavily, hiking up the cost.

With New Delhi slated to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010, the government proposes to remake this riverfront with a sports and recreation complex. In the meantime, the Yamuna, vital and befouled as it is, bears the weight of New Delhi's ambitions.

At dawn each morning, men sink into the still, black waters to retrieve whatever can be bartered or sold: rings from a dead man's finger, coins dropped by the faithful, the remnants of rubber sandals, plastic water bottles.

The dhobis, who launder clothes, line up on one stretch of riverbank, pounding saris and bedsheets on stone tablets. A man shovels sand from the river bottom: every bullock cart he fills for a cement maker will fetch him a coveted $5.50. Men and boys bathe.

"This river is worshiped," said a bewildered Sunny Verma, 24. "Is this the right way of worshiping it?"

So shaken was Mr. Verma on his first visit to the Yamuna this year that he now works full time to shake up others. He joined an environmental group called We for Yamuna.

"If you want to worship the river, you should give it more respect," he said. "You should treat it the right way. You should question the government. You should ask the state to actually do something for the river."

Deluge and Drought

Mrs. Prasher has the misfortune of living in a neighborhood on New Delhi's poorly served southern fringe.

As the city's water supply runs through a 5,600-mile network of battered public pipes, 25 to 40 percent leaks out. By the time it reaches her, there is hardly enough.

On average, she gets no more than 13 gallons a month from the tap and a water bill from the water board that fluctuates from $6 to $20, at its whimsy, she complains, since there is never a meter reading anyway.

That means she has to look for other sources, scrimp and scavenge to meet her family's water needs.

She buys an additional 265 gallons from private tankers, for roughly $20 a month. On top of that she pays $2.50 toward the worker who pipes water from a private tube-well she and other residents of her apartment block have installed in the courtyard.

Nearly a fourth of New Delhi households, according to the government commissioned Delhi Human Development Report, rely at least in some part on such wells. It is one of the principal reasons groundwater in New Delhi is drying up faster than virtually anywhere in the country: 78 percent of it is considered overexploited.

Still, the new posh apartment buildings sprouting across New Delhi and its suburbs sell themselves by ensuring a 24-hour water supply — usually by drilling wells deep underground. "Imagine never being thirsty for water," boasts a newspaper advertisement for one new development.

Warning of "an unparalleled water crisis," the study released in August found that 25 percent of New Delhi households had no access to piped water, and that 27 percent got water for less than three hours a day. Nearly two million households, the report also found, had no toilet.

The daily New Delhi hustle for water only adds to the strains on the public system.

A few years ago, for instance, to compensate for the low water pressure in the public pipeline, Mrs. Prasher and her neighbors began tapping directly into the public water main with so-called booster pumps, each one sucking out as much water as possible.

It was a me-first approach to a limited and unreliable public resource, and it proliferated across this me-first city, each booster pump further draining the water supply.

The situation for New Delhi, and all of India, is only expected to worsen. India now uses an estimated 829 billion cubic yards of water every year — that is more than guzzling an entire Lake Erie. But its water needs are growing by leaps. By 2050, official projections indicate, demand will more than double, and exceed the 1.4 trillion cubic yards that India has at its disposal.

Yet the most telling paradox of the city's water crisis is that New Delhi is not entirely lacking in water. The problem is distribution, hampered by a feeble infrastructure and a lack of resources, concedes Arun Mathur, chief executive of the Jal Board.

The Jal Board estimates that consumers pay no more than 40 percent of the actual cost of water. Raising the rates is unrealistic for now, as Mr. Mathur well knows. "It would be easier to ask people to pay up more if we can make water abundantly available," he said. A proposal to privatize water supply in some neighborhoods met with stiff opposition last year and was dropped.

So the city's pipe network remains a punctured mess. That means, like most everything else in this country, some people have more than enough, and others too little.

The slums built higgledy-piggledy behind Mrs. Prasher's neighborhood have no public pipes at all. The Jal Board sends tankers instead. The women here waste their days waiting for water, and its arrival sets off desperate wrestling in the streets.

Kamal Krishnan quit her job for the sake of securing her share. Five days a week, she would clean offices in the next neighborhood. Five nights a week, she would go home to find no water at home. The buckets would stand empty. Finally, her husband ordered her to quit. And wait.

"I want to work, but I can't," she said glumly. "I go mad waiting for water."

Elsewhere, in the central city, where the nation's top politicians have their official homes, the average daily water supply is three times what finally arrives even in Mrs. Prasher's neighborhood.

Mrs. Prasher rations her water day to day as if New Delhi were a desert. She uses the leftover water from the dog bowl to water the plants. She recycles soapy water from the laundry to mop the balcony.

And even when she gets it, the quality is another question altogether.

Her well water has turned salty as it has receded over the years. The water from the private tanker is mucky-brown. Still, Mrs. Prasher says, she can hardly afford to reject it. "Beggars can't be choosers," she said. "It's water."

September 30, 2006

Thirsty GiantIndia Digs Deeper, but Wells Are Drying Up

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

TEJA KA BAS, India — Bhanwar Lal Yadav, once a cultivator of cucumber and wheat, has all but given up growing food. No more suffering through drought and the scourge of antelope that would destroy what little would survive on his fields.

Today he has reinvented himself as a vendor of what counts here as the most precious of commodities: the water under his land.

Each year he bores ever deeper. His well now reaches 130 feet down. Four times a day he starts up his electric pumps. The water that gurgles up, he sells to the local government — 13,000 gallons a day. What is left, he sells to thirsty neighbors. He reaps handsomely, and he plans to continue for as long as it lasts.

"However long it runs, it runs," he said. "We know we will all be ultimately doomed."

Mr. Yadav's words could well prove prophetic for his country. Efforts like his — multiplied by some 19 million wells nationwide — have helped India deplete its groundwater at an alarming pace over the last few decades.

The country is running through its groundwater so fast that scarcity could threaten whole regions like this one, drive people off the land and ultimately stunt the country's ability to farm and feed its people.

With the population soaring past one billion and with a driving need to boost agricultural production, Indians are tapping their groundwater faster than nature can replenish it, so fast that they are hitting deposits formed at the time of the dinosaurs.

"What we will do?" wondered Pavan Agarwal, an assistant engineer with the state Public Health and Engineering Department, as he walked across a stretch of dusty fields near Mr. Yadav's water farm. "We have to deliver water."

He swept his arms across the field, dotted with government wells. This one, dug 10 years ago, had already gone dry. In that one, the water had sunk down to 130 feet. If it were not for the fact that electricity comes only five hours a day, every farmer in the area, Mr. Agarwal ventured, would be pumping round the clock.

Saving for a Dry Day

If groundwater can be thought of as a nation's savings account for dry, desperate drought years, then India, which has more than its share of them, is rapidly exhausting its reserve. That situation is true in a growing number of states.

Indian surveyors have divided the country into 5,723 geographic blocks. More than 1,000 are considered either overexploited, meaning more water is drawn on average than is replenished by rain, or critical, meaning they are dangerously close to it.

Twenty years ago, according to the Central Groundwater Board, only 250 blocks fell into those categories.

"We have come to the worst already," was the verdict of A. Sekhar, who until recently was an adviser on water to the Planning Commission of India. At this rate, he projected, the number of areas at risk is most likely to double in the next dozen years.

Across India, where most people still live off the land, the chief source of irrigation is groundwater, at least for those who can afford to pump it.

Here in Jaipur District, a normally parched area west of New Delhi known for its regal palaces, farmers depend on groundwater almost exclusively. Across Rajasthan State, where Jaipur is situated, up to 80 percent of the groundwater blocks are in danger of running out.

But even fertile, rain-drenched pockets of the country are not immune.

The crisis has been exacerbated by good intentions gone awry and poor planning by state governments, which are responsible for regulating water.

Indian law has virtually no restrictions on who can pump groundwater, how much and for what purpose. Anyone, it seems, can — and does — extract water as long as it is under his or her patch of land. That could apply to homeowner, farmer or industry.

Electric pumps have accelerated the problem, enabling farmers and others to squeeze out far more groundwater than they had been able to draw by hand for hundreds of years.

The spread of free or vastly discounted electricity has not helped, either. A favorite boon of politicians courting the rural vote, the low rates have encouraged farmers, especially those with large landholdings, to pump out groundwater with abandon.

"We forgot that water is a costly item," lamented K. P. Singh, regional director of the Central Groundwater Board, in his office in the city of Jaipur. "Our feeling about proper, judicious use of water vanished."

The Politics of Water

With the proliferation of electric pumps, he added, it took only 20 years for Rajasthan's groundwater reserves to sink to their current levels. Twenty more years of the same policy could be catastrophic.

The central government has been coaxing states to require the harvesting of rainwater, for instance by installing tanks or digging ponds, so the water will seep into the earth and recharge the aquifers.

Other solutions are politically trickier. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has warned of the consequences of free or cheap electricity and urged state officials to crack down on pumping. But state officials, attuned to potential backlash, have been slow to respond.

Tighter restrictions would in any case run up against one of the government's top priorities, one that India has long considered vital for its independence: the goal of growing its own food.

The fear now, among those who study Indian agriculture, is that without a careful review of water policy and a switch to crops that use less water, India stands to imperil its food production.

Here in the dust bowl of Rajasthan, desperate water times have already called for desperate water measures.

On a parched, hot morning not far from Mr. Yadav's home, a train pulled into the railway station at a village called Peeplee Ka Bas. Here, the wells have run dry and the water table fallen so low that it is too salty even to irrigate the fields.

The water regularly travels more than 150 miles, taking nearly two days, by pipeline and then by rail, so that the residents of a small neighboring town can fill their buckets with water for 15 minutes every 48 hours.

It is a logistically complicated, absurdly expensive proposition. Bringing the water here costs the state about a penny a gallon; the state charges the consumer a monthly flat rate of 58 cents for about 5,300 gallons, absorbing the loss.

A Parched Village

The growing water shortage has transformed life in Peeplee Ka Bas. Its men left long ago to seek work elsewhere. The women remain to spend the blistering summer mornings digging ponds in the barren earth, hoping to catch monsoon rains.

Where farming once provided a livelihood, now digging puts food on the table. For a day's labor, under this public works program intended to help the poorest families, each woman is paid the equivalent of 40 cents, along with 24 pounds of wheat.

It was not always this way. Once farming made sense. Many of the women digging on a recent morning remembered growing their own food — peas, tomatoes, chili peppers, watermelons — and selling it, too, at the nearest town market.

Year by year, the wells began to run dry. And there were several years of little to no rain.

Meera, a mother of three who uses only one name, who is lucky enough to come from a landowning family, still watched her husband leave the village to find work in a cement factory.

There were times, she acknowledged, when it became difficult to feed the children. Now she finds herself digging ponds for a bag of wheat. And praying for rain. "Our life is not life," Meera said. "Only when it rains, there's life."

A half-hour's drive along a narrow country road, just next door to Mr. Yadav's water farm, live a pair of brothers, Nandalal and Jeevanlal Chowdhury.

They have so far resisted following Mr. Yadav's lead in selling what water is left under their land, mainly because it requires a hefty investment to buy pumps. This year, the water in their well dropped to 130 feet, twice as deep as 10 years ago.

Only millet grows here now, a crop that takes relatively little water, and cattle fodder. Their last vegetable harvest was five years ago.

They know they will not go on farming forever. The water will not last. They will search for other work, elsewhere. Jeevanlal Chowdhury was vague on what prospects the land would hold for his children.

"We are close to the finishing point," he said. His daughter, a sixth grader, listened intently to the conversation. "The water is almost gone."

October 1, 2006

Thirsty GiantOften Parched, India Struggles to Tap the Monsoon

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

SURAT, India — Early on a Monday morning during the August monsoon, after several days of torrential rains, the engineers in charge of a massive dam about 50 miles upstream from this diamond-polishing hub faced a harrowing crisis.

With water brimming well past the permitted levels at the 350-foot Ukai Dam, according to official records, and the skies showing no sign of relief, the engineers apparently threw open the reservoir's 21 sluice gates. Water then did what water does. It surged downriver, swallowing this city of three million people like a hungry beast. The diamond lanes of India became a warren of muck and ruin.

In less than three days, at least 120 people died. More than 4,000 animal carcasses were later hauled out of the mud. Two weeks after the floods, Surat's diamond-polishing factories were practically empty of workers, who had fled fearing disease. An industry group estimated the losses at $60 million.

Exactly what happened in Surat is still under investigation. But the deluge has drawn new attention to a puzzle that is crucial to securing India's future: how to harness and hold on to its rich but capricious rains.

The problem is a matter of bitter and enduring debate in this country — and the answer may hold a key to India's prosperity. Every year, India is crippled by floods in some areas, even as it is parched in blighted corners elsewhere.

India's average annual rainfall rate hovers at an abundant 46 inches, as much as Ireland's. Yet growing water scarcity threatens both farms and cities. With the population hitting 1.1 billion, the amount of water available to each Indian is roughly the same as the amount available to the average Sudanese, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

India's rains tend to come in short, furious bursts, meaning that much of that water escapes as untapped potential, washing into the sea and wreaking havoc on the fragile villages and flourishing cities that stand in its way.

India is likely to become even more vulnerable, environmentalists warn. Global climate change threatens to make weather patterns even more erratic. Steadily shrinking Himalayan glaciers will inexorably melt and rush down the flood plains.

Floods in India are already a perennial and costly affair, especially in human terms. The southwest monsoon killed 2,545 people in less than four months this year, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Part of the problem lies in India's rapid and unruly development. As water demand has soared, the natural sponges of Indian cities — lakes, ponds, marshes, mangroves — have been lost to construction. Only a handful of city and state governments have lately begun to mandate rainwater harvesting to slowly replenish groundwater.

Moreover, the country faces a water storage crunch. Traditional small-scale Indian storage systems, from temple tanks to elaborate step-wells, have fallen into disrepair. China, a country with similar development issues, manages to store five times the water that India does per person, the World Bank estimates. But the Chinese government, with scant public debate, has moved thousands of people to make way for colossal water projects.

India, too, has tried. But here, in the world's largest democracy, the big-money water solution — the big dam — has been the subject of rancorous disputes. Some projects have met resistance for decades.

Proponents say India must build many more reservoirs to meet its growing water and energy needs. India's founding prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, under whose watch the Ukai Dam was built, called them "modern temples" of his newly sovereign nation. India has roughly 4,300 large dams, like the one east of Surat, and an additional 475 under construction.

They also argue that dams and irrigation canals, like so much Indian infrastructure, are so poorly maintained and managed that already they cannot hold all they are supposed to. According to government estimates, silt deposits make up 10 percent of total capacity. Because of declining rains, India today fills up its reservoirs two out of every three years.

When the Tapi River burst upon Surat on Aug. 7, its swollen waters broke through an already fragile concrete embankment near Abdul Bhai Patel's apartment.

Eventually, the rising waters reduced Mr. Patel's building to a pile of rubble and brick. His wife, Zulekha, was among nearly 40 people who were killed when the building collapsed.

"I screamed," Mr. Patel recalled several days later, as he picked solemnly through the rubble in search of his passport. "No one heard me. There was water all around." The river took away his only source of income, too — the auto-rickshaw that he plied on the streets of Surat.

Downstream, at the industrial park called Hazira, one of the country's largest natural gas plants was forced to shut down. Several petrochemical plants shut down as well. The floodwaters reached as high as 18 feet at Hazira.

Government engineers who manage dams, including the Ukai, have the unenviable task of balancing the competing Indian curses of drought and deluge.

In dry years, they must take measures to store as much water as possible in the reservoir. In wet years, they must guard against drowning those who live downstream.

Whether state officials at Ukai could have taken any steps to forestall the flooding remains uncertain. The officials plead silence, citing a judicial inquiry under way.

Their critics are not silent. They argue that it was reckless to wait so long to discharge so much water, knowing it could submerge the city in a matter of hours, and they have pounced on the drowning of Surat as a model of all that is wrong with the way India uses its reservoirs.

"I call it a management failure," said M. D. Desai, a retired state engineer who once worked at Ukai.

The reservoir was already well over 20 percent full by the time the rains began in July, critics note. Meteorological data forecasted heavy rains in early August. And dam officials should have known that a full moon, on Aug. 9, would bring high tides and further pinch the river's ability to drain into the sea. The Hazira industrial complex, built on the estuary, also compromises the river's ability to drain out.

Often, the wasted water is a double hit to development: Not only does it go unused, it destroys everything in its path, setting back both industry and infrastructure. In Surat, the outpouring of the Ukai Dam snapped electricity and phone lines, and suspended train service and commerce.

The Business Standard, an English-language daily, fumed in an editorial, under the headline "Man-Made Floods," a few days after the deluge.

"Releasing the water in a rush at the monsoon time means that the stored water has gone completely waste, as runoff," it read. "This is criminal profligacy with a scarce and precious resource."

Modern India, urban and rural, continues to live at the whim of the monsoon.

For two-thirds of India's farmers, who have no access to irrigation, a good monsoon is the difference between survival and penury. For fast-growing cities like this one, the monsoon lays bare the frailties of urban infrastructure.

This year, in the perennially drought-stricken agricultural region of Vidarbha, in central India, the monsoon was first tardy and then, unexpectedly furious. Those who had low-lying lands lost their crops entirely. In the western state of Rajasthan, a fluke downpour turned desert to lake.

In the cities, troubles like those in Surat are spread all around, at accumulating costs. Last year, one day's unusually heavy rains brought Mumbai, formerly Bombay and the country's financial capital, to a standstill.

Trains stopped in their tracks. Cars were submerged, sometimes with people inside. Shanties were washed away. All told, 400 people died in the flooding, and then, 60 more, as cholera and dengue fever festered in its waterlogged streets.

Civic scrutiny fell on years of neglect and bad planning: the narrow storm drains bursting with the city's waste; the slums sitting on the city's floodplains; and the sprawling complex of financial services buildings that has eaten up mangroves.

In Surat, prosperity and population growth brought a surge of new development on the river's edge. A city official acknowledged that expanding construction along the riverbank had made it impossible to put up flood walls in some places.

Any lessons will come too late for Tulsi Mistry, 14, and her family. Before dawn, on that fateful Monday in early August, when news of flooding first reached the Rivera Row Houses, they scrambled to higher ground.

From her perch on the roof, Tulsi watched as the river rose and devoured her city. A refrigerator and washing machine coursed down her street. A body floated in the park up the road.

Tulsi and her family ended up virtually stranded on their rooftop terrace for a week. They ate whatever was left in the pantry and shared with neighbors. They drank what was stored in the rooftop tank, forgoing a bath for seven days.

As a responsible citizen I feel it my utmost duty to reveal an unimaginably ghastly attempt of UPA government to mislead the people of India over the matter of terrorism. I am referring to Malegaon Bomb Blast Case.

We know it so very well as to how shamefully the UPA regime has been pursuing the minority appeasement policy. It has almost surrendered to jehadis. Such a brazen and shameless minoritism was raising several eyebrows even among some of the traditional UPA supporters. A Hindu backlash has been a foregone conclusion.

After the Blasts at Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai; the UPA government was under tremendous pressure to take some stern and tough measures against terrorists and their supporters (among Muslim community, of course). But no section of UPA is willing to take such measures, for their "Vote Bank" consideration. Due to this brazen inaction of UPA government (i.e. the soft-approach towards terrorists and their supporters), the average Hindu, particularly the educated ones, have become very angry with them.

The situation has reached to such an extent that even the most die-hard supporters of UPA government—the "secularists" of the English-electronic media (ToI, H.T., NDTV, CNN-IBN etc.)—are finding it increasingly difficult to hush-up (if you are not a downright idiot, you must have noticed/sensed this suicidal tendency of our own media, i.e. hushing-up or even justifying the incidents of mass killing of Hindus by Muslims on one pretext or other) the incidents of such mass killings of Hindus.

Under tremendous pressure to do something about such incidents, the UPA government has orchestrated this Bomb Blast with the following "secular" objectives in their mind:-

Primarily, they want to make it appear as if this blast has been carried out by Muslim jehadi organisations (you see, how instantly the Home Minister Mr. Shivraj Patil accepted and termed it as terrorist strike; in total contrast to how dilly-dallying approach he usually takes when Hindus are attacked).

One may wonder as to what the UPA Government stands to achieve from this? In UPA's scheme of things, the foremost priority has been to mollify the Hindus' anger towards Muslims—whenever such attacks take place on Hindus. Now hold your breath, they are not doing this because of any noble motives of shielding the Muslims from Hindus' wrath (as no such danger exist) neither because they love Muslims. It is all because of the fact that they think that the Hindus' anger and distrust (towards Muslims) will lead to a massive Hindu Polarization towards BJP/RSS.

They think that after this blast at Malegaon the future (inevitable) attacks on Hindus and their places of worship may get secularized!! Believe me, after this incident of Malegaon, the lunatics in UPA think that from now onwards if there is any attack on Hindus and their sacred places the Hindus may be fooled and insinuated into thinking that the terrorists ( i.e. Muslim Jehadi organisations) not only attack the Hindus and their places of worship but Muslims and their places of worship as well (that is why the blasts were engineered just outside a Mosque, that too during the Friday prayers, and a Muslim burial site). These utter lunatics think that when Hindus see Muslim Jehadis attacking the Muslims itself, the average Hindus may not get that angry when they and their places of worship are attacked by Muslim Jehadis! The crux of the matter is that "lunatic seculars" in UPA want to make average Hindus believe that terrorist treat Hindus and Muslims alike, and attack on Hindus is not any specifically Muslim Jehadi deed; rather something of a regular (although severe) criminal deed!! They think that if Hindus are fooled into such thinking their polarization towards BJP/RSS can be checked!!

The second objective of this engineered attack is to malign and slander the terrorists among the Muslims; to make average Muslim believe that Jehadi terrorists are not their friends either.They hope that after such incidents many Muslims will become the hostile to terrorist organisations and will become the informer about the terrorists' activities. Although, to keep Muslim masses away from terrorist organisations is a noble cause; but even to think of such steps to achieve this goal in not only criminal but a ridiculous and foolhardy approach as well. In fact, it is utterly stupid even to think that such buffoonery tactics will wean away the Muslims from jehadi organisations. Muslims know it too well that under no circumstances whatsoever (unless there is Shia-Sunni kind of problem); no jehadi organisation will ever attempt to do such a thing—killing the fellow Muslims without any reason. Even if the Blasts were done by Muslims (although, it has been not) and even if Muslim clerics knew of this; they will never openly admit it. I predict that despite the lack of any evidence, they will blame either the Hindu organisations or the security forces for this.

Now I would tell some other details that I know about it. What I certainly know about the blasts is that it has been orchestrated by the MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE of UPA regime. I know it for sure that the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi knew about it beforehand (remember the prophetic warning of P.M. in chief Ministers' conference—I think it was perhaps a slip of tongue) However, I am not so sure about the Home Minister; he is probably not into it (though I am not sure). But the master minds behind this are Mr. Sitaram Yechury & a Secretary Rank Officer of Government of India. This man—the secretary (I don't want to name him for my own security concerns, however I must give some hints as to who he is)—is known to be very close to Communist Leaders and it was the communist leaders who foisted him to his present post in such a ministry that is very crucial in communists' scheme of things.

How this conspiracy was hatched? It was the Jama Masjid Blasts that gave birth to this conspiracy. Who was behind the Jama Masjid Blasts? Though, I am not certain about it but—being a top ranked government official—I know some innermost information about this. Some police officials had apprehended Imam Bukhari behind this! Why Bukhari did this? He wanted to organise a protest rally in favour of that Phoolpur Mufti who was behind the Varanasi Blasts. He wanted a pretext for such rally. After the Blasts he even organised that rally in favour of Phoolpur Mufti. The Bukhari wanted to create the impression that same set of people were behind both the Blasts—the Varanasi as well as Jama Masjid Blasts. For what reasons; However, to ensure that no one is killed in the Blasts (if the people were killed the matter would have snowballed), a very low intensity bomb (probably a fire cracker with wires and crude detonators wrapped around it—as was apprehended by the police) was used. Some police officers wanted to carry the investigation on this line but they were soon browbeaten by the UPA government and the matter was hushed up. Even several media people too know of this. To suppress the matter, as usual, the ISI and Lashker were blamed for it.

However the secularists in media—even though many of them knew that ISI and Lashker had no role into this—used this incident to convince the Muslims that jihadis (ISI, Lashker, Jaish etc.) are as much of their enemies as of Hindus'. Noble though, the aim is but approach is foolish. The fight against the terrorism cannot be fought with such weak-kneed people as secularists are. Instead of facing the problem in a frank way, they want to wish away the very menace of terrorism. Since I am not in a mood to lecture the secularists, therefore I won't say much about this.

But it was this approach taken by media on Jama Masjid Blasts that got Mr. Secretary to think of such move. Initially, as I came to know of it, he proposed such idea before communist leaders in a lighter and non-serious way. But Mr. Yechury got immensely impressed by this idea and suggested such a move to Congress Top Brass through a NON-POLITICAL Christian Leader from Kerala. Since I am not 100% sure as to whether this leader was really involved into conspiracy I won't reveal his name; however, as soon as I become sure of his involvement, I will reveal his name.

After weighing the pros and cons of the matter, the Congress leadership ultimately agreed to it. However some differences emerged within the UPA; whereas the congress wanted to frame Jehadi outfits for this, the communists wanted to implicate some Hindu organisations for this. What ultimately was decided, I don't know. However I was stunned to see that whereas newspapers and T.V. channels, close to Congress, were blaming the Jehadis; a Newspaper considered very close to leftist lost no time in blaming Hindu organisations for this!! It seems that matter remained unresolved (regarding who should be framed for Bombings) till last and has been left open for any type of interpretation by interested parties.

UPA has been expecting imminent attack on Hindus during festival season of Dashehra, Durga-Pooja and Deepawali and due to this they had been under considerable pressure. But after perpetrating this Blast they are quite relieved! After the Blasts the conspirators were in a joyous mood and Mr. Secretary termed it as a MASTERSTROKE; as in his opinion, this has achieved two goals simultaneously (1) Blunting RSS/BJP criticism of UPA over attack of Jehadis on Hindus and (2) Getting some informers from among the Muslim community.

You must note it in advance—future attacks of Hindus are going to be hushed up under these arguments by media and UPA regime:--

The Standard Congress line will be--"you see, they attack Muslims too".

The Standard Leftists Line will be—"you see, Hindus are also attacking Muslims".

The ultimate aim of this is to leave Hindus confused and to check their possible polarization towards RSS/BJP. Such is the thinking of the people who are in-charge of running this nation!

Who carried out the bombings? As far as I know, no official machinery has been used to carry out the bombing. I have been informed that sections of Nepali Maoist Cadre and/or CPM Cadre were actively involved into this.

How dramatized and well orchestrated the whole incident is, can be gauged by following events:-

How a news channel's camera team immediately rushed to the spot? How that particular leftist newspaper (referred above) knew it in advance that no one will be caught for this?

To give the incident a dramatic turn an unmanned jeep with huge explosive materials was planted and rumours were created that Blasts were aimed at diverting the police attention for safely smuggling the explosive materials. Only a die hard fool will believe this. Even the common man knows that after such incidents the police become far more active; those who want to smuggle the arms etc. would prefer normal incident free days for this rather than high alert days. But you see how foolish the media is—how seriously they took this propaganda for truth.

However many foolish people may get impressed with such an idea but in all, it is nothing but a criminal act. I am absolutely sure that this bombing is aimed more at confusing the Hindus than on weaning the Muslims away from terrorist organisations. Even if it is aimed at later, buffoonery apart, it is an unthinkably criminal way to achieve this aim. What is needed is tough and stern measures against Jehadi Muslim Leaders (Bukhari, Madani, etc.) and Organisations (Madarsas and other seminaries, particularly the Deobandi and Ahle-Hadisi ones) rather than killing the innocent Muslim Civilians . I guarantee that such moves to fight terrorism and create Muslim informers will certainly fail. However it may end-up confusing the Hindus and may serve as a justification for future killing of Hindus.

Due to my personal security reasons I can come into open only when this wretched bunch of criminals—the UPA Government—goes out of power. However I plead every right thinking citizen of India—Hindu and Muslim alike—to send this mail to as may people as possible. I want this fact to come into openwww.haindavakeralam.org

Disclaimer

The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of IntelliBriefs or any employee thereof. IntelliBriefs make no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this blog and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use.

IntelliBriefs blog reserves the right to delete, edit, or alter in any manner it sees fit blog entries or comments that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be obscene, offensive, defamatory, threatening, in violation of trademark, copyright or other laws, or is otherwise unacceptable